22 business focus


Chartered accountants Haines Watts presents a series of articles based on its blogs. It offers analysis, reviews and comments and welcomes your feedback at www.hwca.com/blog


of the month


Job losses, low wages caused by computer revolution?


writes Simon Garrett, partner at Haines Watts


Currently there is a great deal of debate about the minimum wage, stirred up by comments by politicians and caused by the fact that real earnings have been squeezed for a while. In fact real wages in Britain and Germany have not risen for 10 years.


Why has this happened? One theory is that the staggering recent revolution in IT technology has shifted the balance between capital and labour; machines have replaced employees and productivity gains have gone to the owners of the machines, rather than the employees.


Back in the 1930s, the economist Keynes prophesised that real incomes would increase and that the productivity gains of


industrialisation would provide surplus wealth that would translate into greater demand for services. New jobs would be created to compensate for those that had been lost in the process. Until recently, he seems to have been proved correct – real incomes tripled between 1875 and 1975.


But with the latest technological revolution, while the cost of manufactured goods has collapsed, the price of services has increased, cancelling out gains in living standards for the majority (high energy costs have also had a large impact).


Also, several high-skilled jobs are under threat: the legal and accountancy professions are both losing jobs due to technological


TVT&D lecturer guides


students to exam success The first cohort of Thames Valley Training & Development’s Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) Level 2 students have taken their first exam and believe their 100% pass rate was helped by the motivation and dedication of their lecturer, A. Ramesh Arumugam (pictured )


accountancy world with 25 years’ experience in public practice, including 18 years of teaching and assessing accountancy and finance qualifications. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Educational Assessor (CEA), as well as a Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS).


Arumugam is a firm believer in 100% attendance at teaching sessions coupled with a dedication to personal study, and that these are vital if students are to achieve their professional goals.


He says: “I have taught many learners, but this group of students are a source of inspiration to me. They are a great audience, and a real incentive to impart the knowledge and skills of my expertise.”


The students have now progressed on to the second unit of the industry- respected accounting qualification and are working towards their next exams.


TVT&D provides professional training and development products and services to both organisations and individuals. It is a subsidiary


www.businessmag.co.uk


company of Bucks New University in High Wycombe and an approved provider of qualifications from AAT, the professional membership body whose qualifications give students practical skills to work in a range of finance and accounting roles.


TVT&D lecturer, A. Ramesh Arumugam, is a veteran of the


Student Simon Knight, who is a payroll and finance administrator, describes the difference that Arumugam’s teaching has made to his studies: “Our lecturer, Ramesh, is very knowledgeable and as he is highly motivated, he encourages his students to be equally motivated.


“He also goes out of his way to understand how people learn and tailors his courses to try and


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MARCH 2014


ensure that every student gets the maximum benefit from their time in the classroom.”


TVT&D’s accountancy courses are taught part-time and run throughout the year during evenings, weekends and afternoons so that students can study alongside their work commitments. Students can apply at any time and the options for study can be discussed then.


The accountancy courses complement TVT&D’s broader portfolio of professional training in the areas of IT, law, business, management and sales & marketing, which can be delivered at its premises at Bucks New University's High Wycombe campus and in Slough, with some available for in- house delivery.


Details: David Podger 01494-603060 david.podger@ thamesvalleytraining.ac.uk www.thamesvalleytraining.ac.uk


change. The healthcare and education sectors are likely to have increasing productivity at the cost of jobs.


Keynes advocated improved education as a method to cope with changes in productivity. That is what happened to the former agricultural workers who moved into manufacturing during the industrial revolution and is what has been happening to factory workers, who have moved into “pen-pushing”.


The Economist magazine has recently published an interesting table that shows those job


sectors that are least likely to have computer-generated job losses over the next 20 years. The results in order are: recreational therapists, dentists, athletic trainers, clergy, chemical engineers and editors.


It’s hard not to agree with Keynes. Surely improved education and training is the only defence against the effects of displaced jobs and low wages brought on by the latest technology?


Details: www.hwca.com


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